Raluca and I had dinner at Springrolls downtown the other night. While eating, I had a minor (MINOR!) celebrity sighting. It was [ex co-host] from [well known singing competition--Canadian version]. He’s still unshaven, looking ragged, and ever-so-slightly pissed off.
Whatever.
Been a while since I’ve seen Raluca. She was in town for a little work with one of her company’s clients, so she suggested we meet for dinner. Anyway, dinner went well, but she had to leave pretty quickly in an attempt to get back to Waterloo for a Tae Kwon Do class. I was about to take the subway back to my car, but she insisted on driving me back instead. After some hesitation, I accepted. She ended up taking the DVP up north, which didn’t bode well for her making it back in time. At 7:30, we were still hitting the tail end of rush hour traffic, and things were moving slow as people were making their way out of the city.
So, it got me thinking…are we as Torontonians willing to put up with traffic congestion that’s only getting worse as time passes? I mean, I suppose that as a car-driven city it’s now a fact of life. Commutes that take more than an hour (one way) are the norm for many people. I’ve stated before that for myself the commute is 1.5 hours. So, it’s almost as if my work day is extended almost 1.5 times my normal 9-5 work day–and I live within the same city. It must be even tougher for those having to come in from outside the suburbs.
Really though, is there a solution that’s practical? You can’t exactly do anything that will restrict car usage–especially with everyone so madly in love with the vehicle. If you did, there would be bloody hell to pay. It’s tough expanding transit. It seems to be continually underfunded, meaning that expansion is impractical when so much of the existing system is in need of maintenance. That’s just too bad. Consider Scarborough: the subway ends before delving deep into that part of the city; the SRT trains are about to end their service life at some point very soon. Soon, all that will remain is bus service, which is already crowded and slow. You can forget about subways ever coming further out into the east end.
There’s just no winning, you know? I guess it’s not that we’re willing to put up with it: all we can do it bear with it because there simply is no alternative.
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